State Railway of Thailand extends contract of Airport Link’s operator for 3 months

BANGKOK, 27 January 2011 (NNT) – The board of the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has endorsed a three-month extension of the contract granted to Deutsche Bahn International (DBI), the operator of the Airport Rail Link.

Permanent Secretary for Transport Supoj Saplom announced the progress in the selection of a new company to oversee the management of the Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link services in place of DBI, a German railway company. He said the SRT board had made a decision to continue hiring DBI for three more months at the cost of 50 million THB; the current contract is due to expire at the end of January.

However, there are four potential candidates with train operating experience being considered by the SRT board. They comprise Bangkok Metro Plc, operator of the MRT subway, Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc, operator of the BTS Skytrain, Siemens Thailand, electronics and electrical engineering firm, and an operator of Malaysia’s airport rail link system.

Meanwhile, after the Suvarnabhumi Airport Rail Link started collecting its normal fare of 15-45 THB on the City Line on 4 January, the number of passengers has been recorded at 30,000 per day, which is a 10 percent drop, while the daily income stands at 1.4 million THB.